Our forthcoming book is The Comeback: The 2024 Elections and American Politics.
In the wake of the 2024 election and Donald Trump’s inauguration for a second term as president, a plurality of Democrats would like their party to become more moderate, while a similar plurality of Republicans favor the status quo for their party.
Both party groups’ preferences have shifted significantly since 2021, at the start of Joe Biden’s presidency, the last time Gallup measured opinions on this question. Support for a more moderate Democratic Party among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents has grown by 11 percentage points, to 45%, since 2021. At the same time, Democrats’ and leaners’ desire for a more liberal party has declined five points, to 29%, and preferences for no change in party ideology have fallen nine points, to 22%.
Meanwhile, Republicans’ and Republican-leaning independents’ support for the GOP to stay the same ideologically is up nine points from 2021, to 43%, as the desire for a more conservative party is down 12 points to 28%. The 27% of Republicans and leaners who now prefer moderation for their party is not significantly different from 2021.
These changes have occurred as Gallup data show that partisans have grown more ideologically polarized in the past few years. In 2024, the shares of Democrats identifying as liberal (55%) and Republicans identifying as conservative (77%) both reached record highs.
The latest findings are from a Gallup poll conducted Jan. 21-27, immediately after Trump was inaugurated and several weeks after Republicans took control of both houses of Congress.
